'We just made it clear that we had to stay focused and not try to humiliate them,' he said.

‘We said we had to stay serious and concentrate at half-time. That’s something you don’t have to show on the pitch if you are playing.

‘You have to show the opponent respect and it was very important that we did this and didn’t try to show some magic or something like this. It was important we played our game for 90 minutes.’

Hummels, who hopes to recover from injury in time for Sunday’s final, believes Germany will have to deliver a repeat performance in Rio de Janeiro.

‘After our second goal they got confused. They were not organised on the pitch and after that we didn’t miss a chance until we scored the fifth goal. This doesn’t happen too often. You just have to enjoy it,’ he added.

‘We must keep our feet on the ground, but that’s no problem for us. We know how hard it will be on Sunday. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is on the day. It will be a hard fight and the only chance we have of winning is if we know that from the start.

‘We know we are one of the best teams in the world but you always need a bit of luck and for us it was a good day. We must enjoy what happened, but if we lose the final, this semi-final will not be worth anything.

‘The game does not have any impact on the final on because it will be a totally different game. It was nice how it went, but it will be no problem keeping our feet on the ground.’

lol wtf maybe for people with 0 knowledge of football or european culture/history. germany vs netherlands is way more interesting than germany vs argentina... germany and netherlands have a huge rivalry both on cultural terms and in football.

"Pity is a strong word but I would like to apologize to Brazil. We didn’t expect such a score and we tried to be respectful by playing football and scoring goals. This World Cup is a dream come true to us. We’re all really enjoying the Brazilian people and I wish to say that the Seleção has played a great role in the tournament." - Bastian Schweinsteiger

My brother and I were going to watch the walking dead but I was like eh lets just watch the game. So happy we did because it was AMAZING. We were flipping out laughing our asses off. We just couldn't believe it.

Brazil played an awful defense I still can't get over it, the open spaces the ball watching no one covering Müller like ever.

I do think Germany will win the final (they just operate way better as a team) but I don't think people are right in using t0his match to say "well obviously Germany is gonna destroy in the final" I can't imagine a team playing defense THAT bad in the final against Germany.

Seriously, that first goal Muller just ran at the net like a free bitch when any half-dencent team would've had a man marking him. And the holes continued. Unless Argentina lose their defence in the airport, that's not really a plausible outcome.

I'm thinking Germany will use their height advantage and get an early goal. Then a second goal, later, while Argies are desperately trying to equalize.

lol well it did seem like they let up second half (or that brazil was trying? lol) cause the score coulda been more like 10-1. i wonder how it felt like to be the german team that night though. like damn. and im always laughing in like embarrassment at the articles about their defeat. like something id see in a sitcom

it's not the best german squad i've seen but i imagine they felt like it was all a dream lmao. brazil made it so easy for them. & no matter what anyone says, beating brazil in brazil like that must feel like the ultimate high lol.